Gay nonprofit in financial trouble

A Capitol Hill institution important to Seattle's lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual community is in financial trouble and likely will close by year's end at its current location.

The Seattle LGBT Community Center, which last year stepped forward to keep a gay Pride march and festival on Capitol Hill after the traditional sponsors moved the annual event downtown, is struggling to pay its suppliers.

The revelations cap a year that witnessed the financial troubles of Seattle Out and Proud, another gay-focused nonprofit group and the traditional sponsor of Seattle's annual Pride festivities. The group still owes the city more than $100,000 for last year's events.

Now serious questions are being raised about whether the LGBT center — whose director resigned this summer — will be up to staging a Pride celebration on Capitol Hill next summer.

"It's tough all around for nonprofits, particularly gay and lesbian nonprofits," said Breanna Anderson, co-president of the LGBT center's board of directors.

With rents as high as they are on Capitol Hill, finding a new home is the "fiscally responsible thing to do," she said. "So we're looking at a few options right now, including sharing space with other community organizations."

Calls to other board members and the LGBT center's interim director, Dennis Poplin, were not immediately returned Wednesday, and the center's former executive director, Shannon Thomas, could not be reached for comment.

Established in 1996, the LGBT center provides a range of support services to the local gay community.

Last year, Capitol Hill businesses and activists, outraged with Out and Proud's transfer of the Pride parade from Broadway to downtown, asked the LGBT center to restore festivities on the Hill — a march along Broadway and a festival in Volunteer Park.

Several sponsors of the original Pride celebration shifted their event support to the center. Anderson said those and other funds go into a general fund to pay center costs. It gets most of its money from private donors and about $16,000 from the city of Seattle to help run a hotline.

"None of our money is earmarked," Anderson said.

She said that in the spring, a burned-out Thomas told the board she was resigning but was talked into staying long enough to see the June Pride events on Capitol Hill through to completion.

Thomas left shortly after and was compensated for significant paid time off that she had accrued, along with her last month's salary, Anderson said.

The center reportedly owes about $30,000 to vendors that supplied lighting, sanitation and other services during this past summer's Pride events. Anderson said the center is trying to raise money and hopes to pay its debts within the next 45 days.

James Ball, lead technician for AV-Pro Inc., which provided projection lighting, said his company has not been paid.

"We understand that they are going through some hard times, and we're trying to work with them. I hope they can make this whole thing come together," he said.

Seattle Times reporter Sanjay Bhatt contributed to this report.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com